Brazing

[Gary Hamilton]

I have been thinking about the possibilities of brazing in relation to knifemaking and had a few questions. I am mostly curious about it and if people are using it. I did a little searching but did not see anything specific on the site.

Is this how laminated metals are typically done? Or is it more of a forging process? It seems this would be an idea application for Nickel brazing.

There seems to be quite a few applications where you could substitute brazing for forging with good results. I am thinking mosaic damascus if you were to use the braze material as filler or Michael Walker's "Zipper".



If anyone knows of a forum where vacuum brazing is discussed please forward it to me. I am reading everything I can find but I would like to find a place where I can ask question or at least search questions other people have asked.

See how I nicely slipped an off-topic question into the forum. I bet no one even noticed.

[AwP]

David Boye uses braising for guards, he describes his process in "Step-by-Step Knifemaking", though it doesn't seem very common. Laminated metals for blades are forge welded, I believe also known as diffusion welding. I don't think braising would be strong enough for a blade, maybe in a san-mai type, or a good blade steel on the edge with some of the braising on the spine area. For hilt materials and other areas not needing good hardness and strength then braising could work pretty well, it might even be a viable alternate method for making mokume gane.

[Gary Hamilton]

WOW if you accidentally hit <ESC> a couple of times entire paragraphs will disappear. I an not retyping all of it but I will hit the highlights.

I have David Boye's book I have to look that up.

I had thought the braze joint would be weaker but I have been doing research on the Nickel braze and in many applications the braze joint is stronger than the base material. This may not be true with knife materials tho. The flexing of the blade may also be an issue.

I was hoping someone had already blazed a trail on this item. I will add it to my list (that is already too long) to play with in the distant future. I think there may be potential on laminated blade material but it not high on my list right now.


AwP, thanks for your reply.

[AwP]

Here, check this out...

http://www.centercross.com/shop/damascustutorial.htm

[Geno]

brazing vs. soldering is the real question.
Soldering is generally used because of low heat temps.
Brazing is done in higher temps, and is not good for hardened blades.
If you braze, do it befor H/t.
Bronze damascus is another story, not really blade material, it can be done(I have 3)but the heat treat window is just a couple hundred degrees difference before the brass comes melting out...Waiste of time for most. It looks great for bolsters and guards.
Brazing is usually for adding tangs on. Not good for laminating, and would often be destroyed by heat treating if using the wtrong filler metal.
Welding is far superior by design.

[Gary Hamilton]

Thanks for the replies AwP and Geno.